The end of the sixteenth century saw important changes both within Western Africa and in the region’s Atlantic trade. Starting in 1580, a series of devastating droughts afflicted Cabo Verde. The droughts precipitated famines. Many Caboverdeans relocated to the coast of Upper Guinea. This accentuated the cultural and economic ties binding islands and coast and brought changes in the relationships between Upper Guineans and their Caboverdean and Iberian guests. In 1589 the lançados built a fortification at Cacheu in Brame territory. Here was an attempt to shift the landlord-stranger relationship onto a different footing.

This process produced major changes in the emerging creolised community in Western Africa. The arrival of many Caboverdeans swelled this community on the African mainland. Moreover, the fact that there had long been connections between Cabo Verde, the Caribbean islands and America meant that the pan-Atlantic nature of these communities on the African mainland was accentuated. As we have seen, the Kriolu language and mixed Atlantic cultural practices predated these events by some decades, and yet it was in these last years of the sixteenth century that the idea of a Creole community developed. The idea originated in the Americas, which itself stands as testament to the way in which global forces had come to influence local identities and responses in Western Africa by this time.